I have not seen any jealousy, especially in Europe. What is there about America for people from Europe to be jealous about ?
So much anger and anti-U.S. talk points, in my opinion, to jealousy. Some others just accept they like the U.S. I speak from experience and not from reading studies. Most of the Europeans I know that live in the U.S. love it here and have told me they would never go back. Somehow I think you may fall into that category.
The US is unlike any other country. Most other countries are just content to be, to exist. The US has to have a mission, it has to justify itself, it has to preach goodness and liberty, it has to serve up propaganda to itself to content itself about the rightness of its cause and its mission. Sometimes some of it is true. A lot of the time it isn't.
I agree with that to a certain extent. However I think a lot of it has to do with how much scrutinity we are under. I don't know and couldn't care less about who is the president of Norway. However, everybody in the world knows what president Bush ate last night and how high his cholesterol is. I know the economy of the U.S. affects most countries but the scrutinity gives everybody the "right" to pass judgement. On the other hand somebody like Hugo Chavez can make the most outrageous claims and plans but most people don't pay attention.
By the way, I heard yesterday that Bill Gates is still trying to increase the number of "skilled worker" visas because he claims he can't find qualified workers (I.T.) in the U.S. But a report suggests that wages for I.T. people went down by 5% from Sept 07 to Sept 08. How about that. Me thinks this SOB wants cheaper labor from India at the expense of U.S. workers. He actually threatened to move his business to another country. Really? where? I doubt any other country has the I.T. talent in the quantities he is requiring. Well, except for India where they figured out the U.S. is hiring I.T. people and now everybody and their sister is studying Computer Science as a way to get out of their god forsaken country.
Ancient Mariner's responses are more pithy than mine, but :
1) Anger is not the flipside of jealousy. There is a tone of anger, yes, but that has little or nothing to do with jealousy. I say again, in Europe at least, I doubt there is any jealousy. I say again, what is there, precisely, to be jealous about ? The US has severely pissed off most of the world in recent years. As for myself, no, I would not leave the US, I have been here too long, have a family here etc. etc., I am too entrenched. While I deeply admire and love some aspects of the US, its story and its culture, I am not wedded to it in the quasi-religious way some Americans speak of 'American-ness' like some holy writ. I am deeply disappointed about some of the recent trends in this country. The US today is not the US I knew in my youth and to which I emigrated.
2) Microsoft etc. Open markets, as Per says. But the US is in truth a believer in open markets when it's a one-way street outbound. Of course, as a business, Microsoft is bound to want, indeed is obliged, to reduce its costs wherever it can. You know, it can't just import people. Visas are approved only when the company and the individual prove there are no Americans who can do the job. Is this requirement breached ? Of course, but not to the extent that Microsoft would fraudulently misrepresent the position for
all its foreign employees. That's ridiculous. There is a shortage in the US of people with the skills and education levels the company needs. Deal with it. If it happens that employing the right people means that as a byproduct wages are lower, so be it. Also, you know, many Indians want to work in their own country, where you may have noticed growth is pretty frenetic in recent years. It's a world market too - Indians also want to work in Canada, Australia, the UK and many other places. The US is not the city on a hill you think it is. I think you're living in a cocoon.
